Gale Harold laments about missing Queer as Folk reunion in Germany

Gale Harold, who played bad boy Brian Kinney on Showtime's Queer as Folk, is missing the cast's first official reunion since the show ended its run in 2005.

But he wants his fans and his former co-stars to know that he very much wanted to be with them in Cologne, Germany, this week for Rise n' Shine 2012, where the reunion is taking place.

'I’d love to be there to celebrate with you,' he says in a lengthy statement. 'Obviously QAF changed all of our lives. And that fact is more than just the echo of a well-worn phrase. In the years since the series completed, one thing has become very clear to me; there were many lifelong transformations that I, and I think my cast-mates went through while living through our characters.'

The series followed the lives and loves of a group of gay friends living in Pittsburgh and Harold was in the cast for the entire five-year run of the show.

'I had been greatly looking forward to attending the convention, reuniting with all my old cast-mates and meeting all of you,' he added. 'A wonderful work opportunity has only recently come my way and unfortunately the scheduling of that project does not allow me the time to come to Cologne and join you. This disappoints me just as much as I fear it will disappoint many of you. I hope you will all understand and forgive my absence.'

Harold, who has gone on the have a recurring role on ABC's Desperate Housewives and starring roles on NBC's Vanished and in The CW shows Hellcats and The Secret Circle, reflected in his statement about the impact of the series.

'I can remember when we started to hear the stories from those first watching the show,' he said. 'I will never forget being told by some of my brothers and sisters in the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender community that they were hearing their own voices and seeing themselves, some for the first time, on screen.'

'Not everyone in the community saw, or even liked the work we did,' he added. 'But there were many who found hope and solidarity in the stories we tried to tell. I’ve heard that directly from many of those who did. That is undoubtedly what I treasure most. The best we can do as story tellers is tell the truth and find someone to listen to us and respond; however it affects them and however we get there. We told the truth.'